Murrieta Mesa’s Christian Steigele pitched five scoreless innings and scattered three hits as he combined with reliever Austen Salcedo to shut out the Murrieta Valley Nighthawks Tuesday. Steigele earned the win for his efforts and Salcedo got the save as the Rams celebrated their third league victory of the season.

The game was full of controversial calls and disputed plays as the first place Nighthawks lost to the last place Rams. Murrieta Valley Head Coach Monte Jones went toe to toe with the home plate umpire several times before finally getting a warning in the late innings.

The Rams scored in their half of the first when Trae Erickson scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by Joseph Pinkava. Murrieta Mesa struck again in the third inning when Peyton Uhl singled to score Zac Filos. The Rams loaded the bases once again and Pinkava knocked in Erickson again for his second RBI on a fielder’s choice to put the Rams ahead 3-0.

Murrieta Valley just couldn’t get their bats going and stranded a lot of runners on base. The loss drops the Nighthawks into a three way tie for first place with Temecula Valley and Great Oak and sets up an interesting finish in the Southwestern League.

The Rams improve to 3-5 and look forward to being the Spoiler as league play continues. The two teams face off again on Thursday. Game time is 3:30pm

Murrieta Mesa

The Rams scored in their half of the first when Trae Erickson scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by Joseph Pinkava.

The Rams improve to 3-5 and look forward to being the Spoiler as league play continues.